She Who Became the Sun was a difficult book to read and is a difficult book to review.

It's beautiful. It's densely written, rich, powerful, with incredibly written characters whose motivations drive every single action. It develops an incredible and intense world and a powerful story or anger, revenge, grief, and desire.

It's also not a kind book. It's not a book that IGNORES kindness within the narrative -- one of the key theses that the book constantly considers and revisits is whether there is room for empathy, or morality, or kindness, while pursuing one's desires, or if there is only room for the sheer force of will and selfish desire. It's just that the answer to that question is not an obvious one.There's a genre of book that is, to be a bit reductive, "unpleasant people doing unpleasant things". And those are books that are often incredibly written and powerful and stick with us. The Count of Monte Cristo is an example and something I think could act as a bit of a comp to this book. (Or Hamlet. Or Utena, for a different type of media that also falls pretty close). It's a genre where the characters who DO have empathy are often those that suffer the most, and the protagonists, if not the ones who are empathetic and suffering, are often hard to like (or sometimes both suffering AND hard to like) because they are thoughtlessly or deliberately cruel in their selfish pursuit of their wants.

Again -- I cannot say that this makes it bad in any way, and I don't want anyone to take this review that way. It's a GREAT book and I hope that it goes far and gets widely read. It's more of just -- a head's up, because the comps that ARE given (Mulan and Song of Achilles) tell you that it's a rollicking adventure story with a hidden heroine and a tragic queer love story. And both are... technically true, but that's not what it feels like. It's a revenge story and a political thriller. It's an incredible read. It's just also heavy -- it took me a month to get through, because real life right now is also very difficult and I had to take it in bite-sized portions. So just prepare for what you're going into.

But please do read anyway.

Reading "She Who Became the Sun" was an exciting ride and I did not want it to end. The hardest part to read was probably the drought-induced famine-suffering village in the beginning. I think this book has two main characters; while Zhu is the hero of the story, General Ouyang is the anti-hero (not exactly the villain, I thought) and his story is just as compelling. "She Who Became the Sun" has a very strong plot led by two great characters surrounded by fascinating supporting characters (my favorites were the Yangzhou side characters) living in very interesting times and demonstrating that desire, even if it is simply for survival, is the very much the cause of suffering. An added bonus is the subtle romantic subplot for Zhu, balanced out by General Ouyang's complicated relationship with Esen, who has his own complicated relationship with his brother. There is a lot going on, but it manages to work like an orchestra. (I received a free ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.)

This book is perfect for anyone who appreciates military strategy and the humble beginnings to famed warrior arc. Zhu is a strategist who doesn't have the answers beforehand, but does take full advantage of the opportunities presented along the way. While parts of the story felt very rushed, it is certainly a full story--no cliffhangers awaiting in the next book.

I am 53 pages in and I already know that this book is one of my favorites of 2021. The adult fantasy genre has a lot of variety these days and I am glad to see more Asian authors writing in this genre. Zhu takes on the position her dead brother would have in a monastery. Zhu wants to posess the Mandate of Heaven. During her time at the monastery, Zhu faces many trials, and I love how much time Shelley Parker-Chan takes to introduce us to this amazing and evocative story.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

She Who Became the Sun is a very military-based fantasy set in Asia. It's a really character driven story, and in the beginning I really struggled to be able to relate all the characters to each other and who they were. But when I got more into the story, the struggle disappeared and I could enjoy this fantastic and really good debut novel. I loved that we got to follow a few of the characters perspective, as I tend to feel that a story gets more depth if you have more voices in it.

Zhu is such a fantastic character to follow with her will and power to take what she wants and to earn it in her own way. I love the relationship between Zhu and the love interest, which I found even from the beginning to be very layered and real. Often I can feel that love is a set up for the story, but this really felt genuine. And my heart ache for Esen and Ouyng and their terrible fate.

I did really enjoy how easy Shelley Parker-Chan introduced and discussed gender and LGBTQ+-rep in this book. We have two relationships that is queer and I LOVE IT! Can we please get more of that in fantasy!?

This was just a delight to read and I'm already so excited for the nest installment in this series.

Major POPPY WAR vibes. An epic with incredible exploration of gender, sexuality, and war. Highly recommend for anyone who loves historical fantasy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Books for providing me with this ARC to read and review!

She Who Became the Sun is astonishingly, a debut novel, written by Shelley Parker-Chan, which feels like a Chinese historical drama, complete with all the political scheming and social climbing, and combined with interesting fantasy elements. But the real beauty of She Who Became the Sun is the characters. My god, are these characters developed, nuanced, and complex. The pain these characters feel emotionally is absolutely palpable, touching, and makes for a heart wrenching read that hurts (in a good way). She Who became the Sun is marketed as a mix between Mulan and Madeline Miller’s Song of Achilles, but I have seen the former, and read the latter, and I have to say that She Who Became the Sun blows both out of the water easily with its beautiful prose, heartfelt characters, and representation.

She Who Became the Sun follows a main character on the rise, disguised as a man, and later identifying as nonbinary, who seeks the greatness of fate. (Reviewer's Note: I refer to the main character with pronoun 'she', as that is the pronoun she uses in regards to herself consistently throughout the novel. Other characters, who believe she is a man, refer to her with the pronoun 'he.') Growing up as the unwanted and unappreciated daughter of a starving family, she watches as her father is killed by bandits and her brother, who a fortune teller announced had the fate of greatness bestowed upon him by Heaven, succumbs to despair and also dies. Determined to survive, "the girl" takes her brother’s name, Zhu Chongba, as well as his gender, and strives to achieve the fate of greatness that he was supposed to have. Her ambition is her only driving force throughout the entire novel, and as time goes on, Zhu becomes more and more ruthless in order to accomplish her goals of greatness. 

"'Clever people know when to give in,' Ma said bitterly...."

From the get-go, I really admired Zhu’s calculations, scheming, and sheer bravery to accomplish everything that she did. There were times when I wished she would’ve turned back or made different decisions, but the entire time, Zhu single-mindedly kept sight of her goal. Author Parker-Chan does a splendid job of detailing her motivations and her transformation to a character less bothered by morals as She Who Became the Sun progresses. Definitely towards the end of the novel I liked Zhu a lot less than I had in the beginning. This was due to many of her decisions, but I can still really appreciate how deftly the author wove this transformation and how much sense the development made for the character.

"'But you're going to fail...'

She said, hardening, 'Heaven doesn't will my failure.'"

I think my main issue with Zhu and her journey towards greatness was how smoothly things went for her at times. While this can be chalked up to her fate of greatness or even the Mandate of Heaven, I struggled with watching someone with no military strategy training or political training becoming an important leader of a rebellion. I also struggled with what I will deem her “entitlement” to her fate, which she constantly uses to justify many of her abhorrent behaviors and decisions near the end of She Who Became the Sun. As I said though, even with my personal dislike for who Zhu grew into, I felt that that development was a purposeful choice by Parker-Chan and was one that was built up incredibly well throughout the novel.

'She couldn't understand how someone could want anything so much that he would face the impossible for it. It wasn't that [Zhu Chongba] thought himself infallible, she thought. That would take stupidity and for all [Zhu Chongba] pretended naivete, he wasn't stupid. It was almost as if his desire were so fundamental to him that the thought of letting it go was more dreadful than any risk to pursue it. Ma found it unsettling. If your desire was the most important thing in the world, what wouldn't you do to achieve it?"

I also really enjoyed the portrayal of Zhu as a non-binary character and reading all of her thoughts involving her gender identity. It made so much sense that someone who was hated for her birth gender would grow up to identify as neither male or female, as Zhu grows to feel she’s not the woman she was born as or the man she disguised herself as either. Her lesbian relationship with her future wife was really empowering as well, as Zhu taught the woman that she didn't have to be held back by the yoke of being a woman in times where women could only be wives and mothers. Zhu told her wife to want things for herself, and not to just accept what society expected. I really liked that the character Zhu entered a relationship with is not only such a clever woman herself, but also an incredibly empathetic woman. This made her wife a great foil to Zhu, who becomes more and more callous as time goes on.

Though I really enjoyed their relationship, which was developed on the grounds of mutual respect and support, as well as their individual characterizations, the standout of the novel for me by far was everything pertaining to the eunuch Ouyang. God, I just loved this character so much. The constant torment and pain he feels over his forced castration and the ableist society he lives in that views his mutilation as an abomination was so palpable that it leapt straight from the page. His anger, resentment, and conflicting feelings over his relationship with the son of the man who castrated him and killed his family is just incredibly poignant.  I was really rooting for Ouyang to deepen this relationship with the son, called Esen, throughout the whole novel, despite the emotional turmoil and guilt I knew it would cause Ouyang. I felt guilty as a result, but I also couldn't help but to root for this relationship anyways.

"Esen never meant to hurt, and Ouyang had always taken care to pretend matter-of-fact acceptance about his exclusion from family life. Why should he blame Esen for not reading his mind to see the anger and pain there? But the truth was: he did blame Esen. Blamed him even more than he would a stranger, because it hurt more that someone so beloved should not see the truth of him. And he blamed and hated himself, for hiding that truth."

I sincerely wanted Ouyang to have some small piece of happiness for all he had suffered and hoped for some sort of salvation for his unbearable pain, yearning, and longing for vengeance.  Regardless of the outcome, Ouyang is an unbelievably complex character and I lived for any time the character appeared on the page. His contemptuous relationship with Zhu Chongba is similarly riveting. The two characters connect on a different level than the characters can with others, as they both see themselves as "other" or as outsiders. I enjoy all of their interactions, whether hostile or ones of uneasy comradery. 

"Destroying what someone else cherished never brought back what you yourself had lost. All it did was spread grief like a contagion. As he watched Esen, Ouyang felt their pain mingling. There seemed to be no beginning or end to it, as it were all they could ever be."

I honestly cannot say enough good things about the characterizations and relationships in She Who Became the Sun. I was so invested in all of the characters, down to the side ones, due to how well the author writes! I honestly cannot believe She Who Became the Sun is a debut novel, as Parker-Chan's work is so polished and beautiful, often especially when describing the agony of its own characters. Take this quote from the novel, which left me utterly speechless:

"All Ouyang's life he had believed he was suffering, but in that instant he knew the truth that every past moment had been a candle flame compared to this blaze of pain. It was suffering that was lit around without shadow, the purest thing under Heaven. He was no longer a thinking being that could curse the universe. or imagine how it could have gone differently, but a single point of blind agony that would go on unending. He had done what he had to do, and in doing so he had destroyed the world."

I found the prose of She Who Became the Sun to be poetic, and hauntingly beautiful, but also not too over the top. The author struck the perfect balance between this mesmerizing and atmospheric prose that effortlessly depicts the time period of 14th century China and beliefs as well, but never sunk into distracting and unnecessary purple prose. And just as the prose was often indicative of this time, with characters typically saying things, such as "this unworthy monk will not fail," etc., I do want to mention that the novel as a whole reads more like a work of historical fiction than anything else. She Who Became the Sun does have some fantasy elements, but they are truly not the focus of the novel. So if historical fiction isn’t your thing, you may not care for this novel as much. I personally love historical fiction as well as fantasy, so I really enjoyed this "historical fantasy" novel. 

The only other thing, beside Zhu's kind of uncanny success, (I still feel that the Mandate of Heaven and having iron will can only get you so far without proper military and strategy training, etc.,), that I did not care for in the novel is that She Who Became the Sun often switched names when referring to its characters. For example, sometimes the novel referred to characters only by their first names, and then switched to exclusively calling them by their last names. Other times, characters were called by their titles or positions rather than by their names, only to switch back to their names. Unfortunately, this made it really hard for me to keep track of who was whom and I often had to take moments out of reading to at least attempt to piece it together. There is also no appendix or list of characters in the back of She Who Became the Sun to help distinguish characters. I certainly wish there were!

She Who Became the Sun is definitely a book where the characters weren’t always likeable, were more antiheroes than anything, and go through a lot of personal devastation and leave even more in their wakes. So if you don’t like intense drama, you may want to steer clear of She Who Became the Sun. And I cannot help but wonder if the ruination will get even more painful for the characters in the sequel. Perhaps, now that we’ve seen the rise of Zhu Chongba, we will also see the fall of her in the next book.  Ultimately, if you love complex character development, queer representation, historical fiction, heart wrenching drama, and beautiful prose, She Who Became the Sun is, without a doubt, the novel for you.

A character driven, historical novel about desire, fate, and what one chooses to do with them. She Who Became The Sun was a satisfying read, though started out extremely slow and didn’t pick up too much pace from there. Fans of tough, character driven and introspective lead stories about war and gender identity will absolutely love this. It was also extremely fascinating to see a story set during Mongol controlled China. I rate it a rounded up 4 because while I enjoyed it, I never really fully engaged with it. Zhu felt not as fully their own person as I would have liked, and at times the story was too slow for my tastes. The discussion of gender, however, was extremely well done and by far the largest strength of this book.

4/5.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the copy of this book.

Stunning! Best read so far this year! Don.t know why it is even compared to The Song of Achilles, as it is so different and unique. A read you will not put down.. A tale of harrowing determination and strength, doing everything you need to do.

This historical retelling was an amazing epic set in China in the 1300s during the rule of the Mongols. When orphaned and abandoned, Zhu refuses to become nothing and claims the fate that was prophecied for her brother. Assuming his name, and passing as a boy, Zhu's story takes her from the monastery to the battlefields.

She Who Became the Sun was something I felt I had read before, while I also haven't if that makes sense. We delve into the world of war and political ties with any historical fiction novel, but Parker-Chan made it in a way where you get tied up in these characters and their outcomes.

I will admit, it took me a long while to complete due to the fact I found the pacing to be very slow at first. Not only that, but many names were used (make notes, y'all!), but I eventually figured it out. About halfway through is when I became more intrigued with the plot line seeing how everything fell into place and how both sides of the story fell into one.

The dealing of gender and sexuality in this book was something I really loved. It was a learning experience for me as well, as I have never read about characters with these identities in many books before. It explored a new field, which I enjoyed and Parker-Chan did a great job in expressing what these characters went through, and their thought processes with their identities.

Our main character, who we never really know, surprised me in many aspects. The brutal aspect of this book took me aback, since I had never expected many of the things that occurred toward the end to actually happen. With the ending provided, I am very excited to see where the second book takes readers and showcases what happens to everyone due to the hardships and sacrifices both leads did to obtain their spots.

Even with the slow beginning on my part, I give this a solid four stars. Thank you to NetGalley, TOR Books, and Shelley Parker-Chan for an e-book arc of this book.

A female monk working her way towards power, a eunuch with plans for revenge, and a war that wages between them. In a famine stricken village, a brother and sister are left to die... and soon when the boy Zhu Chongba dies... his sister takes his name and disguises herself as a boy in order to enter into the monastery and survive. As Zhu works in order to hide her identity and survive not only the harsh life of the monastery but the military life she finds herself thrust into once her monastery is destroyed.... she soon finds herself raising in the ranks and building her own destiny. On the other hand is the story of Ouyang, a boy whose family is murdered in front of him and than he is castrated and forced into slavery. He has been carefully planning his revenge while pretending to serve the killers who took everything away from him... but navigating court politics and his own emotions is extremely difficult, especially when his enemy is his own best friend. Zhu and Ouyang find themselves on opposing sides, serving different leaders and different agendas but are constantly running into one another. With war on the break, each side must find a way to survive and achieve their own goal... no matter what it costs them.

This story was marketed as a “Mulan meets The Song of Achilles” both two things I absolutely adore and in some ways I can definitely see it. It is a queer and lyrical reimagining and the characters are complex. In a time where there are so many restrictions for woman, and for being different, sometimes we must ask ourselves how far we are willing to go to get what we want. It really was an interesting read. Though that ending was not something I had exactly expected. I have to say though, for me, my favorite character was Ouyang and his journey.

*Thanks Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

CW- death, famine, violence, blood, gore, vomit, torture, sexual content, animal cruelty/death, murder, slavery, grief, murder, homophobia, internalized homophobia, misogyny
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She Who Became the Sun is a lyrical historical fantasy that shows imperial China as well as a war and a young person’s fight to be great.
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I was really excited for this book once I heard the synopsis, and I still really enjoyed it. I loved the exploration of gender identity and the exploration of fate, but ultimately this book was just to slow for me. It dragged, and it was really hard for me to make it through the middle. I did love the beginning though!
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Since this is slated to become a series, I am interested how the story will continue. I did love the characters because they were very distinct and nuanced, and I am excited to see how their stories continue.
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Also, Ma was one of my favorite characters throughout the book. She was so strong and empathetic and I am especially excited to see her story progress.
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Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy of this book!
It's kind of hard not to compare this book with the Poppy Wars, what with the historic Chinese setting, the female protagonist who makes questionable moral decisions . . .
But this isn't quite as wrenching to read as The Poppy Wars, and is still a very good fantasy that I thoroughly enjoyed. It was an immersive read with good characterization and pace. Not sure if it is a stand-alone or part of a series; but if more appears I will surely read it! I really need to know how {this thing I won't tell you for spoiler reasons} happens! Really good story.

It’s been a month and a half since I finished the book and I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s a literary fantasy reimagining of the first Ming Dynasty emperor’s rise to power. (1345, China.) Absolutely brilliant, thoroughly-researched, and incredibly nuanced in its exploration of gender (while still maintaining realistic-feeling historic societal attitudes) and power, SWBTS will undoubtedly remain one of my favorite reads of the year.

Highly recommended! It’s out (in the US) July 20 and certainly worth preordering. Please note that this first novel in the series is lighter on fantasy, so expect a bit more of a historic angle.

Thank you Tor Books for providing a free advanced electronic copy of the book in exchange for an honest review!

It had been so long between requesting this and reading it that I had forgotten the premise of the book. So I went in blind with no expectations and was hooked from the start. I enjoyed the writing and the plot immensely. For most of the book I didn't feel like I really understood or knew Zhu, but that did not detract from my enjoyment of the book at all. This was a well-written historical retelling that was hard to put down. Definitely recommend!

Supposedly this is a version of the Mulan story. The problem is that Zhu is not likeable, the training she receives at the monastery takes too long and doesn't really help readers understand how this person becomes anything later, and by 25% I was done. DNF.

CWs: blood, graphic injury, dismemberment, mutilation, torture, murder, and violence; references to slavery and war crimes; misogyny, sexism, and sexist slurs; some ableist language; descriptions of contagious illness; physical abuse; infidelity; and some scenes containing explicit sex

Let me level with you: I am still struggling to piece together the right words to describe how this book made me feel. The experience of reading it was so heightened and dynamic in a way I still can't fully explain. Regardless, She Who Became the Sun is a powerful story about the evolving, all-consuming nature of desire and about making fate a choice instead of a chance. It's a story that dares to ask: is destiny something we're born into or is it something we make for ourselves?

Her brother was prophesied to be legendary, but when he dies unceremoniously, our nameless main character takes up his name of Zhu Chongba and also his discarded fate of greatness, determined to make it her own. The denial of Zhu's desire is two-fold in this story. As someone raised to be a woman, she was told to discard not only her desire but also her autonomy since her life could only be "in service" of men and secondary to men. When she disguises herself as her brother and joins a monastery in order to avoid famine and death at the hands of the Mongols, she is once again told to discard her earthly desires because her life is to be dedicated in service to the heavens. What she wants and what she dreams for herself is not only secondary and discouraged, but forbidden; it is not to be borne.

But a life of service and obscurity is not good enough for Zhu. In so many ways, she is destined, by both fate and circumstance, to fail. A quiet and meaningless death is the best that she can hope for, and she simply *refuses* that fate. It's a story about Zhu reclaiming her agency in spectacular, dramatic fashion, defying everyone's expectations and fighting for her right not only to live, but to be powerful and to be *known* in every way that matters. It's a story about a character being told that she can't and she won't, and yet finding the courage to do those things anyways. And she succeeds, not because she's all all-powerful being, but because she is unprecedented—because the way she approaches things is different from the way things have always been done.

And in that sense, the story is very much about the power of difference. Zhu presents herself as a man, at first so that she can survive, but then also because she feels more aligned with masculinity and understands herself as someone who is definitely not a woman. She carries herself as a man, but the way that she is a man is inherently different than someone who raised to be a man, and that unique perspective is actually her secret weapon as opposed to a "weakness." Just by existing, she is reconciling so many different perspectives, and her true success comes from being able to understand the world through so many different lenses. For Zhu and other characters, sometimes those differences can be reconciled and sometimes the chasm that needs to be bridged is simply too great.

The story is also about Zhu struggling to balance what she wants to be versus what she thinks she's "supposed" to be. She thinks she's supposed to be a woman, she thinks she's supposed to be a monk, she thinks she's supposed to be exactly the kind of man that Zhu Chongba would have been if he had lived, she thinks she's supposed to be a symbol. But all of those warring expectations don't leave room for her to figure out who she is and what she wants. Does her desire come from someone else's definition of greatness or is she simply stronger and braver for going after an impossible dream that those before her would never even imagine for themselves? Grappling with a reality that exists both within *and* beyond those expectations is a major part of her journey throughout this book.

Ultimately, She Who Became the Sun is a story that asks what it looks like to know your worth and pursue it with every breath left in your body, even when the world is telling you a different story. It questions where we draw the line between selfishness and self-assuredness, and whether destiny actually renders us powerless or grants us the power to fight our way towards a predetermined finish line. Set against an epic and dramatic backdrop of war that is both historical and fantastical, this story is not just astonishing to behold, but it's also a beautiful, emotional, and intimate portrait of a character fighting for her right to exist against all odds. Looking back on this book, I feel a sense of gratitude for having bore witness to Zhu's journey, and I know this is only the beginning of what promises to be a truly incredible and unforgettable epic.

A beautifully intricate historical fantasy that will sit with me for a long time, I am so excited to see where the author takes the story next and what else they have in store for future works.